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The Snake Pit
The group resumed their journey the next morning and it didn't take long for them to reach the border of Kozek, the slave country. Upon entering Baqir warned them all to sign in at the border city with their real names, which nearly none of the party did. They headed up to the richer section of town and found the information trader and his four daughters were expecting company, but not them. The information trader offered them food and drink which in turn, the characters paid for with the information of who they were. Some different prices were discussed but ultimately the party didn't have anything of enough value to get the information he had. However, the information trader mentioned that his daughter was wanting to learn magic and Artemis volunteered to teach her in exchange for the location of the artifacts. The broker agreed to this and told the group that there were four artifacts that were once used by the first Agoricians to defeat the parani barbarians to the South. They were the Lodestone Chain, The Golden Star, The Silver Serpent, and finally The Skull of the Parani King. The broker knew one of the artifacts currently lay around the bottom of a massive sinkhole in Hutani called: The endless pit. The broker offered to let the party stay the night but the day was still young and they could cover a lot of ground before dark if they decided to leave now. Dolan asked Artemis if he could borrow her broom as it would be useful if they were exploring a giant sinkhole. Artemis agreed and let him borrow Gina for the mission and the group headed out. After a full day’s travel the group had crossed the border into Hutani. That night while Palar was on watch a werewolf came out of the woods. Palar briefly tried to reason with it before it attacked, the group rushed out to help but Palar has already cut the beast in three. The creature reverted to its human form and Helena was upset that the group had killed him instead of taking him alive. Palar confessed that he thought the creature was a shifter like Warren and had elected to attack them so he killed it. Palar performed a burial rite for the werewolf and the group returned to sleep. The next day they reached the village outside the endless pit and learned a basket weaver named Pog had already gone down the pit less than a year ago and no one who goes in ever comes out. Naturally the group proceeded to go into the pit. After a long, muddy treck down the sinkhole the passageway narrowed into virtual mudslide as it spiraled inward toward a chute that lead to an 80 foot drop into a chasm below. Palar and Helena peeked over the edge to see a small semi-village of snake people living down in the chasm and several dozen natural columns that ranged from 30 to 70 feet high. They attempted to stealthily fly down to one of them but Palar’s bright armor got him spotted. Helena quickly cast comprehend languages on him in order to allow him to attempt negotiation. Palar tried to reason with the snake men but they quickly tried to surround him. He managed to spot their leader and tried to negotiate with her but she ignored him. The Snakes began to try to attack Palar as he played keep away with his wings. Things went poorly when Koritha got spotted in the ceiling and the snake leader yanked her down to try and kill her with the fall. Helena rushed in and pushed Koritha enough to change her trajectory enough for her to grab a pillar, but now it was officially a fight. The rest of the group leapt into action as the hoard of snake people rushed the pillars. The group cut down nearly forty snakes before Palar managed a finishing blow in their leader, sending the others scurrying back. After a short rest and a fruitless search of the chamber the group headed down the hole the snake army retreated down. Helena tried to get ahead of the rest of the group so Palar tried to paralyze her to keep the group together, but she used her tides of chaos and made eerie music play. Dolan covered her mouth to make sure she didn’t talk and alert their enemies who could potentially be setting up an ambush but Helena decided to use Thaumaturgey and the entire group’s cover was blown anyway. Luckily for them the snakes were no longer interested in fighting them but instead they were just swarming around a pillar in the center of the room. In an ancient language the pillar said “Whomever takes this will be hunted by the ethereal devourer". Helena, of course rushed rushed up and took the silver snake from the top of the pillar without translating the writing first. The group left with the first artifact in towe, and an unknown curse on Helena's soul.